The Andersen Journals
The Andersen Journals (also referred to as MLAndersen0; sometimes abbreviated as MLA or MLA0) is a video series with ARG elements set in the Slender Man Mythos. Although still including seemingly supernatural elements, the series takes a more psychological approach to the subject of the Slender Man. The Andersen Journals is one of the top five most popular Slender Man video series. Overview Michael Lukas Andersen, who had just been discharged from a psychiatric hospital, starts a vlog at the request of his doctor. He soon begins filming a tall, faceless man who he had been seeing throughout his life, although others had denied the being's existence. Shaun, Michael's brother, as well as his friend, Eric, feel as though Michael is deceiving his followers by discussing the so-called faceless man and make their opinions on the matter known by uploading a video of their own. Shortly after, Shaun goes missing and Eric comes to the conclusion that Michael, having spent years in a hospital for a mental condition, must be to blame. While the two attempt to uncover what happened to Shaun, Michael must show Eric the truth as a means of proving his sanity. Relevant Links MLAndersen0 YouTube channel Plot Summary The Video Journals On his birthday, a single day after the end of a sixteen-year stay in a psychiatric hospital, Michael Andersen begins to create a video journal at the request of his doctor, with the purpose of documenting his thoughts and feelings. The following day, Michael discusses a dream he had, in which he saw a tall figure reminiscent of a grandfather clock a person identical to himself. Michael continues to have the same recurring dream over the following days, which always ends with him attempting to touch the clock. Michael also expresses his belief that he is being followed and films an instance in which his stalker, a faceless man wearing a suit and red tie, appears. Around this time, Michael has another dream, in which his family vanishes before his eyes and he is dragged back to the alleyway, where the grandfather clock has changed to more closely resemble his stalker. As he approaches the clock, he hears the word "virus" being repeated to him. After waking, Michael discovers a red tie and a dreamcatcher on his bed and decides to stay at his brother's house, no longer feeling safe. Shaun, Michael's younger brother, and his roommate, Eric, feel that Michael has been leading people on with his videos and do not believe in the existance of his so-called stalker. As Shaun had accidentally been filming their discussion, the two decide to upload the video to Michael's channel as a means of proving their point. Michael, having moved back to his own home, responds to their claims of him being mentally unstable and deny that he has been fooling his followers. As Michael is filming a video journal entry, Eric enters his house and questions him as to Shaun's wherabouts, as he had seemingly disappeared. Michael later uploads a video Shaun had left for him on his camera, promising to explain the situation to his followers soon. In the video, Shaun chastises Michael for lying to Eric about his disappearance and mentions that he has seen the tall figure and had the same dream as Michael, only he is unable to touch the clock. He discusses how the virus mentioned in Michael's dreams likely referred to himself, as he has a way of spreading his thoughts to others, and states that he will be leaving town. In response, Michael uploads a video in which he criticizes Shaun for abandoning him and asks him to come home. During the video, the faceless man appears behind Michael and places a hand on his shoulder. Michael also releases the video of the event that caused Shaun to leave, in which he drugged and interrogated him. Their conversation in the video reveals that Michael was admitted into a mental facility after he was blamed for breaking Shaun's leg when he was eight, although he had claimed that the tall man was responsible. As Shaun had denied the man's existance when asked by their parents, Michael holds him partially responsible. Michael then drives Eric to an alleyway under the guise of taking him to meet Shaun, as a means of proving the tall figure's existance. When he shows up, wearing a black tie in place of the usual red one, Eric is briefly placed into a coma-like state before the two ultimately escape. Shaun leaves another video for Michael to find upon returning home, which prompts Michael to apologize for getting Shaun and Eric involved and ask his brother to return home yet again. He also states that he has been performing actions that he cannot remember and that he intends to find Eric. Eric visits Michael soon after and tells him that he is unable to remember the events that took place in the alley. Eric's attempt to explain that he souldn't be involved is interrupted by the arrival of the Slender Man. Eric then finds Michael in a trance-like state and is attacked by the tall man almost immediately after. Michael learns from a family friend that Shaun had been staying with his friend, Dave, and confronts him. Michael tells Shaun that he had contemplated suicide, a convsersaton that is interrupted by the arrival of the Slender Man, who leaves Shaun in a state of constant screaming. Dave helps take Shaun back to Michael's house, encountering the tall man once more on the way. Eric and Shaun decide to stay with Michael until they gain a better understanding of what is going on. One night, Michael films himself entering Shaun's room, seemingly while sleepwalking, and holding him at knife point, before claiming that he is unable to go through with harming his brother and awakening in tears. After Michael stopped taking his medication and spent a day and a half in his basement, seemingly talking to the tall man, Shaun and Eric decide to have Michael sent back to his old hospital for a 72-hour watch. Michael films one final video journal entry as he awaits the arrival of the hospital workers. Patrick's Revelation Several weeks later, Shaun is tied up by what appears to be Michael. "Michael" reveals that he is really Patrick, an alternate personality, and that the two had met before as children, although he had been subdued during Michael's time at the hospital. Patrick grabs an axe and tells Shaun that he doesn't intend to harm him, although Eric may not be so lucky, before giving Shaun a means of freeing himself and leaving. Shaun gets into contact with Stormy, who had stayed in the same hall as Michael at one of the psych wards he had been relocated to over the years. She tells Shaun that after knowing him for about a month, Michael began acting strangely, calling himself Patrick and blackmaling the staff with seemingly unobtainable information. Patrick arrives and tells Stormy to keep out of the brothers' affairs, before telling Shaun that Michael had essentially been killing himself, which he cannot allow as they share the same body, and leaving once more. Shaun later shows Eric documents from Michael's computer and explains that, as kids, he and Michael used to play under a tree in the woods, where Michael supposedly formed an attachment to a clock that Shaun could not see. The two are interrupted when they hear a noise and Shaun goes to investigate. When Eric calls out Patrick's name, he appears behind him and knocks him unconcsious with his axe, before dragging him outside and puring gasoline onto him, eventually revealing that he has no intention of setting Eric on fire. Shaun later has Eric admitted into the hospital with a false excuse. After spending about a week in his car, Shaun is yet again confronted by Patrick, who is covered in blood and coughing, claiming that is dying. Patrick refuses to explain his apparent injuries to Shaun and requests that he trust him, before revealing that he had forced Michael to give up control to prevent him from killing himself. A video is later uploaded by what seems to be Michael, along with a warning to talk to Stormy. The video itself reveals that Michael had actually remained in contact with Stormy even after being discharged from the hospital and that Michael has no memory of the time he drove Eric to the alley. Over time, he (or possibly Patrick) begins verbally abusing Stormy, which eventually culminates in Patrick scripting her meeting with Shaun. While at a friend's house, Shaun calls Stormy and tells her that they need to talk, at which point he is approached by Patrick, who is in even worse conditiont than the last time he appeared. Patrick asks for the date and apologizes to both Shaun and Stormy. He then warns Shaun that the worst has yet to come and asks him for a blanket. While Shaun gets one, Patrick leaves behind his hat, which contains a note reading "thestormiscoming", and walks off. Shaun later visits Stormy, who tells him what she had to go through when Michael visited her after getting out of the hospital. While Stormy talks to her uncle on the phone, Shaun searches her apartment and discovers a flash drive marked "MLA". When Shaun questions Stormy about it, the Slender Man appears and she is seemingly dragged into another room. The Slender Man then confronts Shaun and shoves him away, leaving him unconcsious for approximately thiry hours. Shaun uploads the footage on the flash drive, a video of Michael explaining what he knows. One clip shows Michael attempting to call his doctor and discovering that he does not exist. Another shows him explaining the grandfather clock from his dreams and asking why Shaun couldn't remember it. Yet another clip feaured Michael explaining the "virus": people watch videos such as these and begin filming themselves as well, uploading supposedly strange footage until the Slender Man truly arrives. Over the next several months, Shaun begins having dreams, in which he relives the events of the previous year with several strange differences. Stormy, who had moved into Michael's house along with Shaun after their last encounter with the Slender Man, asks Shaun if he remembers he clock. He explains that he has started to remember it slightly, although not as vividly as Michael. He then questions the importance of the clock and wonders how the tall man can be stopped. Throughout the video Shaun uploads of this discussion, glimpes of other videos can be seen, including one in which Patrick is seemingly looking down on Stormy's dead body. Stormy soon begins having a recurring dream of her own, in which Michael tells her that she is going to die. One night, Shaun discovers Patrick in the back seat of his car, weaker and covered in even more blood than before. He warns Shaun that Stormy is going to die and then seemingly vanishes. Shaun and Stormy search Michael's basement for any sort of clue, discovering a music box that one belonged to Shaun's mother. Shaun encounters Patrick, who tells him that "he" has forced Patrick to watch a number of possible futures in which Shaun and Stormy die. He tells Shaun that, as Stormy is living with him, there is still a chance and then leaves. Sometime later, Shaun finds Patrick inside the house. Upon calling out to him, he reveals that he is acually Michael and that he is better, having checked himself into a facility to get help. Michael explains that Shaun last saw Patrick when Michael was let out of the facility for a weekend and hopes that everything can go back to normal. Characters * Michael Lukas Andersen - Upon being discharged from a psychiatric hospital, Michael begins uploading video journals to the internet. He soon encounters the Slender Man, who he had seen as a child, and begins having strange dreams revolving around a grandfather clock and the word "virus". * Shaun Andersen - Michael's younger brother, who allows Michael to stay with him and his roommate when he no longer feels safe in his own home. Although he initially does not believe Michael's claims, he soon sees the Slender Man for himself and strange memories from his childhood slowly begin to surface. * Eric - Shaun's friend and roommate. Eric disapproves of Michael's videos at first, but is forced to accept Michael's opinions after experiencing a first-hand encounter with the Slender Man. * Stormy - A friend of Michael's who once attended the same psychiatric hospital. She supported Michael even when he began to change for the worse and is eventually forced to pay the price. * Dave - A friend who takes Shaun in for several weeks after he suddenly leaves home. * Patrick Andersen - Michael's alter ego, who has some sort of connection with the Slender Man. At first, Patrick appeared violent, although he later shows genuine care for Michael's friends and family. He has been known to appear out of nowhere at times, similar to the Slender Man himself. * Slender Man - The Slender Man has an unknown connection with a grandfather clock Michael and Shaun discovered at children. His strange relationship with Michael seems directly tied to the young Michael once removing the hands from the clock and defacing it. He has an unknown relationship with Patrick, seemingly granting him some sort of powers of his own. Category:Video Series